Commercially available headphones typically comprise a pair of earphones, coupled to one another by a resilient curved band for pressing the earphones against the ears of a user. The resilient band can be a headband type supported by the user's head, and a neckband type that presses down on the rear of the head of the user.
Among the commercially available headband type headphones, a few of them can be folded into a compact form when not in use. Once such headphone, disclosed within U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,052 B2, to Hugo Lenhard-Backaus, issued on Feb. 6, 2007, includes a headband and two earpieces each connected to the headband so as to be pivotable about at least two pivot axes. The two pivot axes intersect one another at a point of intersection that is positioned on or near a central axis of the earpiece, respectively. Arms connect the earpieces to the headband, wherein the arms define a first one of the two pivot axes, respectively. A second one of the two pivot axes is fixedly arranged on the headband, respectively. In this way, the earpieces are rotatable about the arms and the arms are rotatable relative to the headband about the second pivot axes. U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,052 B2, is incorporated herein by reference for at least the purpose of giving context to the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,896 B2, to James T. Embach, is directed to a headphone structure and storage thereof. The headphone structure concept provided includes headphones with rotatable earphones to provide a slimmer profile for storage. Each of the earphones is rotatable between a use position, in which the earphone is sufficiently positioned for listening use by a person wearing the headband, and a stored position. The headphone may have a first width or dimension when the earphone is in the use position and a second lesser width or dimension when the earphone is in the stored position. U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,896 B2 is incorporated herein by reference for at least the purpose of giving context to the present invention.
However, none of the prior headphones is configured so that the two earphones can be rotated or swiveled to a position away from the user's ear while the headphone is worn by the user. Therefore, there exists a need for a headphone that allows a user to free up or uncover one or both ears without removing the headphone from the user's head for greater artistic freedom and flexibility.